UAB Hospital to take control of UAB Highlands

UAB Highlands will be absorbed into the governing structure of UAB Hospital. (The Birmingham News/Tamika Moore)

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System plans to dissolve the governing structure of UAB Highlands Hospital and absorb it into UAB Hospital, officials said today.

The move will essentially make UAB Highlands' Southside campus just another part of the UAB Hospital complex, said UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany. In the past, Ferniany has estimated the move would save between $1.5 million and $3 million a year.

Bringing Highlands into the UAB fold has been part of the plan since UAB bought the former HealthSouth Medical Center in 2006, hospital CEO Mike Waldrum told the UA System Board of Trustees as he presented the plan today. The board's health system committee approved the move, and the full board is scheduled to vote Friday.

"This is the best for us economically and operationally," Waldrum told the board. "We thought this was best for our patients."

UAB will take over all ownership of UAB Highlands, including the hospital's $40 million in debt.